A longtime baseball player, Dennis Willette was trained to expect the unexpected.  But he didn’t know what to expect from his study trip to Kenya, a country thousands of miles away from home.

The senior, a biology major from Middleton, MA, is involved in a number of extracurricular activities.  As a freshman, he was a member of the baseball team, “an experience that I will never forget,” Willette says.  He quickly developed a rapport with his teammates, forging lifelong friendships.  Willette’s teammates “had a great impact on me,” he admits.

Willette was recently chosen as a student delegate to the Board of Trustees.  “This position is enabling me to utilize all of the contacts and friendships [I’ve made] over the past three years,” he says.  It is the students, Willette says, that make the St. Lawrence experience worth the price of admission.  “Representing the students and their concerns is a great privilege,” he says.

Over the summer, Willette spent a month in Kenya and took a course in conservation through the St. Lawrence program there.  “This country is amazing and I wish everyone could experience what it has to offer,” Willette says.  “No words can describe or do justice to the experience I have had in Kenya.”  He plans to return to Kenya in the winter.

Willette is considering pursuing a master’s degree in conservation-based biological studies.  Environmental policy, in particular, has become one of his favorite areas of study.  “In terms of academics, the biology department has done a very good job of challenging me and pushing me to my limits,” Willette explains.  He has also entertained the possibility of becoming a college professor.

Looking back, Willette’s experiences at St. Lawrence have made him “a better person,” he says.  “After my time here I feel as if anything put in front of me I will be able to tackle.”